Åberg proud of 'discipline' on U.S. Open debut at Pinehurst  

By Mathieu Wood

Ludvig Åberg was pleased with the strategical discipline he showed as he continued to impress on the Major Championship stage on the opening day of his U.S. Open debut.

The Swede, who was just starting his professional career a year ago, mixed six birdies with two bogeys in a four-under-par 66 at Pinehurst No. 2 to sit one back of Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy.

Much has been made of the challenges of the green complexes in the lead up to the penultimate men’s Major of the year in North Carolina but Åberg made light work of it as he hit 14 of 14 fairways and found 16 of 18 greens.

The 24-year-old was runner-up on his Major debut at the Masters Tournament in April, and he came into the week on the back of a confidence-enhancing tie for fifth at the PGA TOUR’s Memorial Tournament.

Having started his day at the tenth, the Ryder Cup winner made three birdies on his front nine and while a rare missed green at the par-three sixth cost him his second shot of the day, he quickly recovered it with an outstanding tee shot at the short ninth to set up a closing birdie.

"I'll absolutely take it," reflected Åberg after his first round. "I'm very, very pleased obviously. I wouldn't want to do it again.

"Super happy with the way we hit it. Super happy with the execution today. I felt it was really nice and very encouraging.

"All we can try to do is keep it up and make sure that we're ready to go tomorrow."

This is the first time the U.S. Open has been back to Pinehurst in a decade but Åberg has good knowledge on his side with his caddie Joe Skovron having been on the bag of Rickie Fowler when the American finished in a tie for second behind runaway winner Martin Kaymer in 2014.

“I think staying very disciplined is important," he added.

“There's a lot of pins where you don't really think about going for. So, me and Joe, my caddie, we have a lot of good conversations about certain areas that you try to hit it on.

“It's difficult to be very, very precise with the numbers and those things. But try to get a gauge on where to hit it, where to miss it, make sure that we stay disciplined towards things.”

When pressed whether it was tough to be disciplined, he added: "Oh, it's really hard. Especially when you have a wedge in your hand or something like that where normally you would go at the pin, but you can't really do that here. Absolutely.

"It's the U.S. Open, it's supposed to be hard. That's what we're doing here."

It's the U.S. Open, it's supposed to be hard.

While still new to this elite stage of the game, Åberg is also calling upon his own course knowledge of Pinehurst having competed here at the U.S. Amateur in 2019.

Asked to recall which was the first U.S. Open he remembered watching, he replied: "I remember the first one that I actually paid attention to was this one in 2014. I do remember watching Kaymer play really well.

"Now when I'm working with Joe, who was working with Rickie back then, he was obviously playing very well.

"I do have some memories of Pinehurst. I got to play the U.S. Amateur here a couple years ago. Yeah, obviously really like the place."

While there have been questions about Åberg’s knee after it forced him to withdraw from last month’s Wells Fargo Championship, he said it is causing "absolutely no issues whatsoever", but did concede to feeling a sense of anticipation ahead of his first experience of competitive golf at the United States' national championship.

"Oh, I'm always nervous when I'm playing tournament golf," he reflected.

"I think that's the way it's supposed to be. I think the day when I'm not nervous, it's not a good sign."